It has been a pleasure reading this thread. I recall mooching around at the LMS in Brooklyn Pretoria, aged about 9 with my bicycle propped against a lamp post and clutching my 50c pocket money. With that I could by a Frog model and glue - paint didn't actually enter the equation... pedal home in a huge hurry and build the thing in about 20 minutes. Most of them got blown up with tom thumb crackers. That would be 54 years ago but I still get models delivered by courier, costing a tad more than 50c, and cant wait to open them